Hester Prynne's Alienation In The Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hester displays acts of courage that portray her as a heroic character. Hester clearly suffers from her punishment of having to wear the scarlet letter ‘A’ in public as she attempts to maintain

Hester Prynne of Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter defies the Puritan belief system through her rebellion and compassion. Hester defies the Puritan belief system through her rebellion. Hester Prynne, while in Boston waiting for her husband to come from Amsterdam, commits the crime of adultery and gives birth to a child, causing her to be punished. Hawthorne describes her crime in dialogue between Hester’s husband, who has just arrived in Boston and is unaware of Hester’s circumstances, and a towns member who infers as to what she has done and how much of an uproar it has caused, during her public punishment, in the government forces her to stand on a scaffold for three hours and condemned to wear an A on her chest

Edward Said, literary critic, has described exile as something “strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience,” and as something that can be “potent, even enriching.” In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne experiences an exile after being marked as an adulteress which intrigues the reader because of its ability to change her substantially throughout the novel. Hester’s exile is intriguing because she often is near other people, but she remains on the outskirts of the town, and of society. Through the years, this exile leads to Hester’s complete transformation proves her incredible strength, even when faced with such tragedy.

People have been stereotyping outcasts since the beginning of time. This behavior is a crucial component of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter. The main character of the story, Hester Prynne, resides in a community of Puritans; who are notorious hypocrites. Their harsh rules are basically impossible to follow, therefore setting their citizens up for failure and punishment. Hawthorne tells the story of Hester Prynne with the elements of sin, judgement, and revenge.

Hester Prynne. Hester is shamed publicly for her sin of adultery, for which she bears the mark of

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, is a compassionate yet riveting piece of English literature that supports the movement for equality of suppressed women during a most tumultuous time during the 1800’s. Hawthorne’s use of emotional diction and imagery throughout his novel employs a deplorable tone upon the story. It serves as a stark representation of an imaginative yet realistic example of the indifference of men and women during these changing times. Deeply held Puritanical beliefs led countless of people to believe that individuals, especially women, who committed sins of any type would never reach heaven upon their passing. Men, on the other hand, were judged less severely if accused of a crime. Hester Prynne, the

  "What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us," stated Oliver Wendell Holmes. This eventually proves to be especially true for Hester Prynne, the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne, a fair young maiden whose husband had disappeared two years prior to the opening of the novel, has an affair with the pastor of her Puritan church, resulting in the birth of her child Pearl. Because of this act of adultery, Hester Prynne is branded by the scarlet letter "A," which she is forced to forever wear upon her attire. The plot thickens as Hester's former husband returns to New England and becomes

One important symbol was the letter “A” that Hester Prynne was bearing which meant to represent expulsion and suffering; as the story goes on, she learned that it became a part of her unique identity instead.The

Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter is a unique character. She shows a lot of strength. Hawthorne creates a Puritan Society who isolates Hester, which made her a character of her own uniqueness. Hester is a woman of strength, compassion, and honesty.

Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the truth about Hester’s situation. This is the fact that she is not alone; others have sinned, just not been caught. Despite Hester’s feeling of utter isolation, her predicament gives her a second sense of the many sins under the surface. This could be compared to present day in the way that the people imprisoned are not the only sinners. It does not make everyone innocent because they do not have a scarlet letter or reside in a

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel about guilt and innocence in Boston, Massachusetts during the 1640s. Hester Prynne, the protagonist of the novel, is a beautiful married woman who has committed adultery and had a child while her husband was lost at sea. She is now forced to bear the scarlet letter on her chest to let the public know what sin she has committed. Roger Chillingworth is Hesters lost husband who has returned back from seas to learn that his wife has been unfaithful to him. He has devoted himself to finding who Hesters lover is and seek revenge on him, even if it wreaks him. Arthur Dimmesdale is the town’s reverend and Hesters secret lover. He is in continuous conflict against himself since he is supposed to be

With a “tall…figure of perfect elegance…and dark and abundant hair,” Hester has but one fault about her: the “scarlet letter…upon her bosom” (Hawthorne 44). Destined to wear the letter A on her chest for the rest of her natural life, Hester recognizes that this is not only her punishment, but also a reminder to every one of her adulterous actions. With the act of adultery being Hester’s only known sin, thus far, the reader is left wondering just how deeply it will affect her. Coming with a larger price than she could have ever imagined, Hester’s sin essentially makes her an outcast and “in all her intercourse with society…there [is] nothing that [makes] her feel as if she belong[s]” (Hawthorne 67). After her sinful act is brought into the open, Hester is isolated within her own realm, with only her young daughter to accompany her. This sense of isolation builds a metaphorical barrier between the people of Hester’s community and herself, despite her attempts to integrate back into their sphere. Following seven long years of this lifestyle, it seems that Hester finally is accepted by her community, and shockingly enough, “many people refuse to interpret the scarlet letter A by its original signification [, and instead,] they sa[y] that it

In his essay On The Scarlet Letter, D.H. Lawrence contradicts Hawthorne’s portrayal of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne respects Hester and portrays her as a victim, whereas Lawrence argues that she is one of the main sinners in the novel. D.H. Lawrence establishes and supports his claim that Hester Prynne is unworthy of Hawthorne’s praise by effectively utilizing concise syntax, frequent repetition, and strong biblical allusions.

Hester Prynne, a character within The Scarlet Letter, is a prime example of Hawthorne's common transformation of individuals within his books. These mutations involve the qualities and attributes of her physical appearance, feminine emotions, and reputation among the townspeople. Throughout the novel, the mentioned elements of Hester's character develop and change several times, providing the reader with better understanding of the influence that the scarlet letter and other characters have on her.

The Scarlet letter sheds much light on the theme of isolation strait from the top when Hester Prynne gives birth to her daughter, Pearl, in prison. Pearl is the result of Pre-Marital Sex, and while the father is unknown at this point, it later is revealed that Arthur Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father. Forced to wear a large “A” on her chest for the rest of her days as a reminder of her sin of fornication in the Puritan Society, Hester Prynne becomes outcast by her peers. “ Measured by the Prisoner’s experience, however, it might be reckoned a journey of some length; for, haughty as her demeanor was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung in the street for them all to spurn and trample upon.” Even though Hester is surrounded by people, she is all alone. She is being paraded through the streets, as an example for others to not follow her ways. Hester’s isolation encourages her to stand up and not be ashamed of her actions, but to take pride in them.